Insights ...

Why age gin in a barrel?

If you love brandy and gin, you will absolutely adore the distinctive flavours of Imbibis’ Barrel Aged Gin. While combining the two spirits through the ageing process sounds like a unique concept, the idea of ageing gin in a cask or barrel has been around a long time. And despite new gins popping up regularly, with many aged in barrels rather than the copper still, the delectable combination of gin and brandy isn’t something you’d easily find at your local bottle shop.

The type of wood used, its age, size & the previous liquid in the cask all matter. Barrel-ageing is used to add just enough influence to complement the gin, rather than to overpower it. Usually when it comes to gin, the ageing time is short to still allow the botanicals to shine through. We are talking months rather than years. While some distillers use virgin oak, which means the cask is new and has not been influenced by any previous liquid, we really wanted to combine our silky, smooth signature brandy with our award-winning Clarity gin.

So we popped Clarity into one of our recently emptied barrels for nine months. The result is a delicious infusion of gin and brandy with a flavour that is like no other. Juniper and complex spice give way to floral and fruity notes with an undeniable caramel and toffee complexity rounding out this beast of a drink. What start out as an experiment has resulted in a completely distinctive experience, unique to Imbibis. Note only 157 bottles were made in this batch.